The Importance of Insurance When You Travel

27th July 2018

Insurance, ey? Everyone bothers you about it for every aspect of your life: home, car, health, life and travel. It’s the one thing you buy but hope you never have to use, which is a shame, seeing as it costs so much.

However, one of the most inexpensive forms of insurance is travel insurance and it’s one of those things that you absolutely should always buy, even though it isn’t a legal requirement. If the worst were to happen, not having travel insurance can have desperate consequences.

So, no matter where it is that you’re travelling to or going on holiday, make sure you get the right insurance and take it out regardless on your position. Here are just a few reasons why.

Sickness or Injury

Sickness and injury can happen anywhere at any time. If you’re abroad, in a country that isn’t your own, it can be a scary experience having to go to a hospital when you’re not feeling well. Even worse when you have the thought of medical and doctors bills to pay because you haven’t taken out insurance. Worse still is when you have the idea of having to file a medical malpractice claim, which is a whole other game when you have to do it in a different country.

Lost Passport

Things get lost all the time, especially if you’re a scatterbrain. One of the things that you absolutely do not want to lose is your passport. You’ll then have to find your embassy, go through a process to establish your citizenship and then pay over the odds to get an emergency passport. Travel insurance can help you claim back on these.

Cancelled Flight/Missed Connections

Trip interruption coverage can help refund the expenses of a new return ticket if a flight gets cancelled. Many of these clauses will specify conditions of a cancellation. Double check with your travel insurance company and read the fine print to see what is covered by trip interruption coverage. Sometimes protests by flight attendants or pilots aren’t part of the deal, but weather condition will be.

If you’re doing a long hails flight, connections come as part of the deal and if a flight is delayed and causes you to miss the onward travel flight, you may be able to recover the cost of getting a flight that will get you there on time.

Terrorism Coverage

It’s a scary world we live in right now. Nefarious characters are popping up all over the country causing fear and unrest in all corners of the world. Yes, terrorists. It’s unfortunate that terrorism coverage even has to be a clause in insurance documents, but it is and it’s important to have it.

If a terrorist event occurs in your destination, you may be worried about the effects that will have on any non-refundable costs from your planned trip. It would be unwise to risk the travel, so take advantage of your insurance to try and claim back these ‘non-refundable’ costs.

Get the Insurance

The bottom line is, you need to get travel insurance. There’s no ifs or buts about it, it can help save a lot of heartache and lost money if anything were ever to go wrong while you are travelling.

Robert Darnell

I’m Robert, the Grey Wanderer. After over 50 years in business, it was time for me to hang up my boots and enter the world of retirement. With so much time on my hands I decided to indulge in the two things I love most, writing and travel and so the Grey Wanderer was born.
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